Preece Victorious in North-South Shootout at Caraway
SOPHIA, NC — A small but competitive field of Modifieds ran for the $6,000 payday at the Caraway Speedway and at the end of the 125 lap grind, Ryan Preece of Berlin, CT sat in victory lane in the Ed Partridge owned number six. Preece said “I feel like I just won the lottery, this dedicated team turned this car around in five days to come here. This win is for John Blewett.” When asked about having five time North South shootout winner Matt Hirschman behind him for the last 25 laps, Preece said “All I could think about was keeping the number 60 (Hirschman) behind me. To beat Matt means a lot.”
Hirschman of Northampton PA, who started from the pole after setting fast time of 15.699 at 104.3 mph, was out raced by Preece on lap one, but used a lap 82 restart to take over the top spot. It looked like Hirschman was on his way to victory number six in the N-S shootout until Preece took command on a lap 99 restart.
Preece and Hirschman ran bumper to bumper with Hirschman using the chrome horn a number of times, but couldn’t pull off the pass for the lead and had to settle for second place. “I came up a little bit short, I cost us the win, I had all good restart up until the last one. For a lot of the laps Ryan and I were pretty equal. I’m disappointed we couldn’t get the win, I did tap him a couple of times but I wasn’t going to spin him,” Hirschman said.
Also in a first time ride was Ron Silk of Norwalk, CT. Silk brought the Rob Fuller owned LFR sponsored number 15 home in third place after starting fifth and staying in contention all race long. “The car was pretty good, a little free at first, I had a lot of fun and I’ve got to thank Rob Fuller and crew for the opportunity to drive this car.” When asked about the 2015 season, Ron said “my plans are still up in the air for next year. I’ll be working on that after this week.”
Jason Myers of Walnut Cove, North Carolina had the strongest of the southern entries with a fourth place finish.
Derek Ramstrom of West Boylston, MA ran a heads-up race moving from mid-pack to round out the top five.
Summary:
Track – Caraway Speedway, Sophia, NC.- 0.455 mile.
Race – John Blewett Memorial – North South shootout.
Length of race – 125 laps.
Time of race – 58: 17.614.
Margin of victory – 0.261.
Best lap time – 16.159.
Best speed – 101.368.
Best lap by – #6 – Ryan Preece.
Cautions – 7 – laps 47, 57, 82, 84, 87, 99, 99.
Lap leaders –(# 6 – 1, 64) – (#09 – 65, 82) – (#60 – 83, 99) –(#6 – 100, 125)
Finish.
1 –#6 – Ryan Preece.
2 –#60 – Matt Hirschman
3 –#15 – Ron Silk
4 –#4 – Jason Myers
5 –#35 – Derek Ramstrom
6 –#22 – Chuck Hossfeld
7 –#5 CT – Chris Pasteryak
8 –#09 – Andy Seuss
9 –#79 – Spencer Davis
10 –#77 – Gary Putnam
11 –#21NY – Tony Hanbury.
12 –#3 – Darren Scherer
13 –#1 – Burt Myers
14 –#21 – Tommy Neal
15 –#9 – Tommy Barrett
Sources: Jim Snape/YankeeRacer.com